India bans streaming apps you’ve never heard of — but millions watch

India has ordered the ban of 25 broadcasts – many millions of viewers and even the promotion of subscribers – by allegedly promoting “obscene” content, in one of the largest digital campaign in South Asia so far. The demand affects less well -known services, but it is very common like Ulu and Altt that meets the appetite of the collective market for adults and vibrant entertainment.

This week, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued directives to prevent access to websites and applications related to 25 broadcasting service, noting the provisions of the Information Technology law for 2000 and the 2021 information technology rules, according to Techcrunch.

The matter came after months of the National Committee for the Protection of Children’s Rights and a Permanent Parliamentary Committee on IT that raised concerns about the mature content that is broadcast on these platforms without sufficient guarantees.

The Indian government contacted Internet service and applications, including Google Play and Apple App Store, earlier this week to restrict these broadcast services, a special source said to this issue of Techcrunch.

Some of these services, especially those that have millions of subscribers, have lived live at the time of the presentation of this article.

Google and Apple did not respond to the suspension requests. Also, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting did not respond to an email sent on Friday.

Among the 25 broadcast service, 10 purchases were provided within the application through its Google Play apps and the application store, generating $ 5.7 million of downloads with approximately 105 million downloads, according to the applications of applications exclusively with TECHCRUNCH. The wide gap between purchases and downloads within the application is primarily due to the low costs of subscription-much less than Netflix and other global platforms in India.

It is worth noting that some of these broadcasting services either have never been included in traditional application stores or have been removed earlier, and instead their applications were presented as APK downloads directly. As of publication, some of these APK files were still available through their websites or third -party platforms.

Earlier this month, the Indian production company Balaji Telefilms, Altt’s father, revealed that its broadcast application has achieved 202.6 million dollars ($ 2.3 million) of revenues by adding 1.06 million subscribers in 2025. The content of Altt has been monitored for more than 5.8 million hours, and got 160 million annual posts.

The Altt application is no longer available for download through Google Play and India’s Application Store, and its website was unknown in most Indian Internet service providers at the time of this article.

Balaji Telefilms did not respond to the ban on the ban.

ULU, a relatively prominent broadcast service that the Indian government called, has been available through its application on the Play Indian store, and its website was also available. However, the service iOS app was not available to download from the Indian App Store.

Ulu Digital, the parent company of Ulu, has reported a net profit of 212.3 million dollars ($ 2.5 million) for the fiscal year 2024, according to its organizational deposit that was reviewed by Techcrunch. The company recorded revenues of 931.4 million dollars ($ 11 million) and announced its net value of $ 2.08 billion (24 million dollars).

Ulu Digital did not respond to the suspension requests.

In addition to millions of dollars in subscription revenues, these broadcasting services were attracting millions of global visits to their websites.

ULLU has seen about 10 % growth year on traffic on traffic all over the world, reaching 1.9 million visits in June, while Altt recorded more than 130 % growth to 776400, for each similar.

In India, ULU recorded a growth of 18.9 % on an annual basis, reaching 1.8 million visits, while Altt witnessed an increase of 157.8 % to 696,200 visits, and similar data appears.

More importantly, this is not the first time that broadcasting work has been witnessing a campaign in India. International platforms, including Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, are often faced with censorship cases by the Indian government.

However, even the most stringent procedures are seen in obscenity cases despite the lack of clarity in the regulations, because watching clear content is characterized by completely consensual interactions between the actors who are in a special place that is not a crime.

In 2023, the Indian Minister of Information broadcasts warned broadcasting platforms not to provide offensive and obscene content. New Delhi also prevented thousands of web sites that flowed porn content. Based on an appeal to organize explicit sexual content in April this year, the Supreme Court of India also issued notifications to the broadcast platforms and the Indian government.

However, curbing obscene content is still a challenge even for the Indian government. Small broadcasting services – such as the target in this repression – often appear under new names, applications and fields. It is equally difficult for mediators such as Google and Apple and Internet employees to prevent access completely, as these platforms often spread through alternative channels and use social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube to attract viewers.